The Future of Educator Micro-credentials

Digital Promise hosted a Summit on the Future of Educator Micro-credentials January 9-10 in Redwood City, CA.

We explored the opportunities and challenges — from educator engagement, micro-credential development, research and policy considerations, and incentives and value propositions for stakeholders  —  for scaling impact of the educator micro-credential ecosystem.

During the Summit, we engaged with important questions, such as:

• How can micro-credentials add value to an educator’s professional learning journey?
• How do various stakeholders perceive the value of micro-credentials in the ecosystem?
• What are the right research questions to measure impact and what data do we need to pursue those research questions?
• What structures do we need to maintain rigor, reliability, and accessibility while scaling for the growing number of interested educators?
• How can micro-credentials support various roles in schools?

Check out the full set of questions the Summit explored here.

See the Summit’s featured speakers and challenge sessions by checking out the detailed agenda here.

We would like to thank all of our partners who attended the Summit and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for their generous support.

Attendee List

Over 100 developers, researchers, educators, and thought leaders attended this year’s Summit. Take a look at the full attendee list here.  

Summit Notes

See what ideas and questions were shared throughout the Summit by taking a look at the notes document here.

Graphical Recordings

Opening Panel

The Summit began with an opening panel featuring teachers, thought leaders in the professional development space, and state education administrators that explored the major challenges and solutions facing this growing ecosystem.

Challenge Sessions

After the opening panel, attendees selected from four challenge session micro-credential topics: development, research, value, and educator engagement, where they will follow the Challenge-Based Learning framework to generate meaningful and practical solutions to challenges associated with scaling the ecosystem.

Valuing Micro-credentials Challenge Session

The Valuing Micro-credentials Challenge Session pursued solutions for ensuring that the current professional development environment provides value for micro-credentials educators earn. Two questions framed this session:“How should the ecosystem structure the economics of micro-credential implementation?” and “How can stakeholders streamline communications around micro-credentials?”

Challenge Session Report-Outs

The final day of the Summit concluded with each challenge session reporting out on solutions they created for their specific challenges and how those solutions would be implemented and evaluated.

Summary and Reflections

Explore participant reactions and pictures from the event by checking out this Storify.

Learn about Summit highlights and takeaways in this blog post.

Press Coverage

“Are Micro-credentials the Next iPhone?” Education Week

“Can Micro-credentials Create More Meaningful Professional Development for Teachers?” KQED News/Mindshift

Feedback Survey

Please complete the Summit Feedback Survey here so that we can ensure future events are engaging and effective.

Continue the Conversation

Be sure to check out digitalpromise.org/educator-micro-credentials to stay up-to-date on our work and feel free to reach out to microcredentials@digitalpromise.org to learn how you can support this work moving forward.